I see where the confusion would come in. Bruce approached Jason sometime prior to Batman Inc and gave him this "mission". It would appear to be sometime after his confrontation with Dick and Damian (when he had Scarlet as his sidekick) and prior to his current Red Hood gig with the Outlaws, that's just my own theory though based on what we've seen so far.

We do know that the second volume has at least acknowledged a couple of New 52 plots (the stuff from the first New 52 Batman and Robin arc for instance) and that book referenced the bounty on Damian's head that Talia put...but I think that's been about it. It's been mostly unclear where things are supposed to fit in with the New 52 timeline.

Yet certain things are out of order. Damian killed Doctor Daedalus in Leviathan Strikes which takes place before the New52. Yet in an issue Batman Inc, Batman speaks as if this occurred after Damian killed NoBody. Damian killed NoBody in the first New 52 arc of Batman and Robin, so the timeline here is kinda messed up.

Oh I agree, it's a complete mess. Plus of course without Final Crisis occurring that means we don't even have Bruce's original reason for starting Batman Inc intact any more! LOL. Plus Dick's year as Batman in the five year timeline. Anyway. Just a magnificent issue and I think my favourite one of the second volume so far.

I didn't see the Wingman thing coming either. I hope we get an issue exploring how that came about.

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That one was kinda obvious from the start since 1) the character had to be male and 2) had once done time as a villain. Jason was the only one who fit the role plus in his own book and in B&R he is on friendly terms with Bruce.

If we were expected to see the connections between a series we're told is "before the new 52" / no longer in real continuity and a bunch of series in which we have no idea how the last "five years" really worked, I'd consider that to be unfair play. How can I be expected to look for clues in series I'm told have nothing to do with Batman Inc, especially if those clues are "done time" and "is male"? It could be Catman, for all I know. Azrael. This is exactly one of those "in the gaps" between continuities moments that is driving some of us nuts. A murder mystery where the identity of the murderer is revealed in clues in an otherwise unrelated cook book is a failed mystery.

I wish new 52 was a real reboot.. an honest to goodness reboot. For example, Batgirl really was weighed down by the paralysis story that survived the complete retoolong. I kind of just wished they started Batgirl over from scratch.

I think Morrison has been affected by editorial as well during the relaunch. At NYCC he stated that he originally intended "Action Comics" to be six issues, and editorial asked him to extend it to a full twelve issue. Plus we know there are issues with Batman Inc.

^ Yeah, like the case with Perez, where they didn't tell him what Morrison was doing with Action. I'm also not saying that Morrison isn't without fault, because we do know he tends to ignore stuff at times and do his own thing, but I don't really feel like he is too blame in any of this stuff.

I don't blame Morrison for Countdown to Final Crisis - he's made it pretty clear that he wasn't happy with Queseda's decision to screw around with the New Gods, essentially contradicting and sometimes retelling pivotal events from Final Crisis itself. Without Countdown, I think more people would acknowledge that Final Crisis is actually a masterpiece. With Batman Inc, it really was there first, and it really annoys me that DC published this epic over six years and then screwed around with the franchise by allowing Snyder to duplicate the plot in the Owls arc. That's now a pattern on DC's part: "Good idea, Grant, now we're going to tell the same story in a slightly different way at the same time."

I haven't read Perez's run, but it might have been nice of DC to simply let the two men tell their stories and then sort it out later, if continuity was a problem. They're both huge talents. As readers, we should've felt spoiled for choice.

I might check these out. Right now I'm loving the heck out of Yale Stewart's JL8 series (formerly known as Little League). I have never thought much of "kid" or "baby" character type stuff but Yale's work is exceptionally fun. There are 84 issues and they're presented in comic strip form. Seriously good.